2. Made for walking
The industrial logic of the European walking shoe
There is a particular kind of satisfaction in finding the right tool for the job, one that fits not just the task, but also the values behind it. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how the digital spaces we inhabit shape the way we communicate. It is one thing to talk about the quality of European craft, and quite another to host those conversations on a foundation built closer to home.
Following some excellent conversations with many of you last week, it became clear that our digital “post office” should reflect the same European spirit we celebrate in every issue.
Moving to a New Home
When Choosing Europe first launched, the goal was simple: start sharing ideas immediately. We chose Substack because it was a functional, ready-to-use vehicle. It served us well for the first steps of this journey, but as we grow, it feels only natural to move into a space that aligns more closely with our mission.
We are currently building a custom home for this newsletter. This new platform will be fully European, self-hosted, and powered by open-source tools. Rather than a rejection of others, this is a positive step toward consistency. We want the infrastructure of Choosing Europe to be as thoughtfully selected as the products and places we recommend.
What to expect
The Transition For the next few days, we will continue publishing here on Substack, while our new home at Choosing Europe is already up and running.
The Update I will send a short note very soon with the details of our migration plan.
The Experience Our new home will be cleaner more independent and entirely ours.
Thank you for being part of this evolution and for the thoughtful feedback that helped spark this change. It is a pleasure to build this with you.
In this issue
💡 Focus Beyond the sneaker hype.
Selecting European footwear built for longevity, correct anatomy, and the reality of daily walking.
📖 BookTime Shelter (Vremeubezhishche) · Georgi Gospodinov · Bulgaria 🇧🇬 (2020)
A Booker Prize-winning novel about memory, nostalgia, and the future of the continent.
🎬 FilmThe Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer) · Germany 🇩🇪 (2023)
A tense drama about truth, prejudice, and the collapse of order in a school.
📺 Series Adolescence · United Kingdom 🇬🇧 (2024)
A raw, continuous-shot drama following a family’s journey through the British justice system.
🎵 Music Sand · Balthazar · Belgium 🇧🇪 (2021)
A refined, groovy album that masterfully blends indie pop with soulful, late-night rhythms.
🎙️ Podcast The Europeans · Europe 🇪🇺
A witty, weekly guide to what is actually happening across the continent.
A small side note
If you are looking for a great backpack, you might want to consider ORTLIEB. It is designed and produced in Germany, and the manufacturing still happens in Bavaria. 🇩🇪
Choosing European footwear 👞
Do you really need marathon technology to walk to the corner supermarket? Probably not. Yet we often end up wearing performance sneakers designed for elite athletes even when our daily routine is made of pavements stairs and short errands. The result is footwear built for bursts of speed not for the slow repetitive act most of us actually do which is walking.
European footwear at its best comes from a different mindset. It is not just made in Europe as a label. It is an industrial ecosystem shaped by geography materials and generations of accumulated knowledge.
In places like the Palatinate region in Germany shoe making grew into a local economic engine. In Scandinavia industrial pragmatism pushed brands towards tighter control of materials and cleaner processes. In Benelux long standing construction traditions kept repairability alive.
Across the continent the common thread is simple. Shoes should be designed around the anatomy of the foot not around marketing narratives.
The industrial home
Producing footwear in Europe today is neither simple nor cheap. Environmental rules are stricter, labour is more expensive and many brands have had to spread production across borders to survive.
That reality is not a scandal. It is the cost of staying in business in a global market. Still it does not erase the difference between brands that kept their know how, their material standards and their core workshops within the European sphere and those that fully outsourced everything except the logo.
For everyday life we do not need technical mesh or exaggerated cushioning. We need breathable materials soles that support posture and constructions that can be repaired instead of discarded.
A good shoe is not a performance product. It is a practical tool and in the European industrial tradition it is a small piece of applied ergonomics.
Europe remains a reference point for comfort not because it rejects globalisation but because it still hosts clusters of expertise. These include tanning, leatherwork, vulcanisation, Goodyear construction, orthopedic fit systems, and durable sole-bonding techniques.
Even when production is shared across Portugal, Slovakia, Bosnia, or elsewhere within the European orbit, what matters is whether the brand still thinks in European terms, meaning anatomy first, materials second, and trends last.
Choosing these brands is, in the end, a practical choice that puts restraint, durability, and repairability first. It also means backing a European industrial base that can disappear quickly and is painfully slow to rebuild.
Selected Brands
Birkenstock· Germany 🇩🇪
The anatomical benchmark. Birkenstock cork and latex footbed is built to support the natural shape of the foot not to soften it into weakness. The brand remains deeply anchored in German production with major sites in the country and relies heavily on European inputs including Portuguese cork. It is not about fashion. It is about structure.
Mephisto· France 🇫🇷
The walk all day specialist. Based in Sarrebourg Mephisto Soft Air system is a real construction logic. It is a flexible mid layer designed to reduce impact and protect joints and back during long urban days. Crucially the brand keeps its original French workshop and complements it with long standing production in Portugal keeping technical knowledge inside Europe.
ECCO· Denmark 🇩🇰
A rare case of full vertical integration. Headquartered in Bredebro ECCO controls the chain from tanning to assembly. Its Fluidform direct injection sole process avoids heavy reliance on glues and creates a flexible durable bond. Even with global operations the point is control. They offer fewer black boxes stricter material standards and a manufacturing culture that treats how it is made as part of the product.
Gabor· Germany 🇩🇪
Accessible comfort engineering. Gabor Best Fitting technology provides extra support area at the ball of the foot for stability and long walking days. Design and development remain German while production is strongly rooted in European plants in Portugal and Slovakia allowing closer oversight of leather quality and assembly standards.
Waldläufer· Germany 🇩🇪 F
ounded in 1960 in the Palatinate tradition Waldläufer focuses on fit realities including removable footbeds multiple widths and hand finished details. Leather sourcing stays European from Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal and production remains European as well.
Hartjes· Austria 🇦🇹
A regional industrial model that still exists. Based in Pramet Hartjes keeps production in Austria and builds its identity around foot health. They use cork based comfort thoughtful lasts and chrome free linings designed for a better internal climate. This is European manufacturing as local continuity not branding.
Novesta· Slovakia 🇸🇰
Industrial heritage made practical. Operating from the historic Baťa era factory in Partizánske Novesta still uses traditional vulcanisation methods that bond natural rubber under heat and pressure reducing dependence on chemical glues. Durable simple and repair friendly by nature it is a rare survivor of Central Europe industrial footwear story.
Ambiorix· Belgium 🇧🇪
Classic construction with comfort built in. Based in Tongeren Ambiorix is known for multi width options and a cork layer under the insole that gradually moulds to the wearer. The brand also carries the status of supplier to the Belgian Royal Court. It sits closer to craft than mass market but its comfort logic is deeply relevant.
Van Bommel· Netherlands 🇳🇱
A guardian of repairable construction. With family shoemaking roots going back centuries Van Bommel is closely associated with Goodyear welted methods in Moergestel. This is the kind of construction that can be resoled again and again. It is a reminder that longevity is often a design decision not a price tag.
Kavat· Sweden 🇸🇪
Circular thinking industrially applied. Founded in 1945 Kavat was the first footwear brand to receive the EU Ecolabel in 2008 and has continued to push chrome free leather called Eco Performance and a repair and rebuy logic that extends product life. Production is centred in its own factory in Bosnia keeping control and standards within a European framework.
A note on iconic brands
It is worth separating a brand cultural identity from its industrial reality. Some iconic European names are still European in design language but now manufacture most of their volume in Asia.
That does not make them automatically bad but it does change what you are supporting when you buy them.
In this issue, we highlight brands that maintain essential parts of their operations within the European industrial area. This includes their technical workshops, production expertise, and material sources, as well as factories under their direct control.
You should look for materials that age well, constructions that can be repaired, and brands that still operate inside a continental ecosystem of leather, craft, and ergonomic know how. Your feet will benefit first, but your local economy will also benefit quietly in the background. This is exactly how good footwear should work.
Now that we’ve covered the serious part of this issue, we can finally get to the cultural picks. Let’s dive into some films, series, music, podcasts, and books from across Europe that are genuinely worth your time.
🎬 Film
The Teachers Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer)· Germany 🇩🇪 (2023)
A young teacher tries to deal with a series of small thefts at her school. Her intentions are reasonable even admirable. What follows is anything but.
Set almost entirely within a single building the film unfolds like a thriller without ever leaving the classroom corridors. Rumours spread faster than facts procedures replace judgement and trust collapses under the weight of suspicion. No one behaves outrageously which is precisely the problem.
The Teachers Lounge works as a sharp microcosm of contemporary Europe. It is diverse well organised guided by good intentions and alarmingly fragile once confidence breaks down.
Other European films worth your time
Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d une chute) · France 🇫🇷 (2023)
A courtroom drama that slowly dismantles a marriage. Precise controlled and unsettling it shows how truth becomes slippery when private life is exposed to public judgement.
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet) · Finland 🇫🇮 (2023)
Aki Kaurismäki quiet deadpan portrait of loneliness and chance encounters in Helsinki. Minimalist humane and unexpectedly tender it offers a necessary pause in the middle of heavier themes.
Io Capitano · Italy 🇮🇹 (2023)
A raw and visually striking journey following two teenagers from Senegal towards Europe. The film avoids abstraction and forces the viewer to confront migration as lived experience not policy debate.
📺 Series
Adolescence· United Kingdom 🇬🇧 (2024)
Many series about young people rely on shock or sentimentality. Adolescence does neither. It looks calmly and uncomfortably at how violence masculinity and responsibility take shape long before adulthood.
The story follows a teenage boy accused of killing a classmate, but the real focus is wider, encompassing family, school, social pressure, and the silences that allow things to escalate. It is not an easy watch, and it is not meant to be. Its strength lies precisely in its restraint.
Rather than offering answers, the series forces the viewer to sit with the consequences. It feels distinctly European in its refusal to simplify a complex social failure into a single villain.
Other European series worth your time
Merteuil: Jeux de séduction · France 🇫🇷
A contemporary reinterpretation of Les Liaisons dangereuses. Power desire and manipulation unfold among privileged teenagers in Paris. Elegant and unsettling it shows how control and cruelty can thrive behind polished surfaces.
Spy/Master · Romania 🇷🇴
A tense Cold War spy thriller told from Eastern Europe. Based on real events it follows a Romanian intelligence officer trying to defect while remaining trapped inside the system he serves. Sharp controlled and refreshingly free of clichés.
The Lying Life of Adults (La vita bugiarda degli adulti) · Italy 🇮🇹
Set in 1990s Naples this adaptation of Elena Ferrante novel explores adolescence as a moral and emotional rupture. Family lies class divisions and self discovery are treated with patience and depth offering a quieter but equally powerful counterpart to Adolescence.
📖 Books
Time Shelter (Vremeubezhishche)· Georgi Gospodinov · Bulgaria 🇧🇬 (2020)
A clinic for the past opens in Zurich offering Alzheimer patients a chance to relive their safest memories by recreating perfectly detailed decades including the furniture of the 60s the smell of the 70s or the specific light of a lost afternoon.
But soon healthy people want to escape the present too. Entire nations start holding referendums on which decade they want to live in turning nostalgia into a political tool that threatens to replace the future.
Written by Georgi Gospodinov this International Booker Prize winner is a beautiful and melancholic exploration of why we are so obsessed with the past and why it can be a dangerous place to live. It is a brilliant warning for a continent currently trying to find its way between memory and reality.
If you want something else
Free (Të lirë) · Lea Ypi · Albania 🇦🇱 (2021)
A sharp and moving memoir about growing up in the final days of communist Albania and the messy reality of the freedom that followed. Lea Ypi provides a fascinating look at the collapse of one world and the birth of another.
Homo Faber (Homo faber. Il ritorno del sapere del fare) · Paolo Benanti · Italy 🇮🇹 (2023)
An insightful exploration of the relationship between technology and human identity. Paolo Benanti analyzes how digital tools are changing our capacity for creation and the way we understand our place in the world.
Technofeudalism (Technofeudalismos) · Yanis Varoufakis · Greece 🇬🇷 (2023)
A provocative analysis of how the modern digital economy is moving beyond capitalism. Yanis Varoufakis explains how a new system based on digital rent and cloud lords is reshaping our society and our politics.
🎵 Music
Sand· Balthazar · Belgium 🇧🇪 (2021)
Balthazar is a band that understands the balance between groove and restraint. Based in Ghent they have developed a sound that feels deeply European as it is sophisticated slightly melancholic and incredibly well produced. Sand is an album about waiting restlessness and the passing of time.
It is pop music for adults built on soulful bass lines and dual vocals that never feel rushed. The record moves with a quiet confidence making it the perfect soundtrack for city life. It is a reminder that some of the best contemporary indie pop is currently being crafted in Belgium.
If you want something else
Unreal Unearth · Hozier · Ireland 🇮🇪 (2023)
A rich ambitious record inspired by Dante Inferno blending folk roots with a deep cinematic soul.
Gigante · Leiva · Spain 🇪🇸 (2024)
A masterclass in Spanish rock craftsmanship focusing on raw emotions and refined songwriting.
Seoul Mixtape · Lewis Ofman · France 🇫🇷 (2022)
Playful sunny and unmistakably French electronic music that feels like a summer drive.
Time Machine · Alma · Finland 🇫🇮 (2023)
High quality Nordic pop that explores personal growth with a distinctive powerful voice.
🎙️ Podcast
The Europeans· Europe 🇪🇺
A weekly show that covers European politics and culture in a way that is actually entertaining. Hosted by Katy Lee in Paris and Dominic Kraemer in Amsterdam it highlights the stories that often stay hidden behind national borders.
The Europeans is a necessary project for anyone who wants to feel part of a shared public space. It avoids the dry language of Brussels and focuses on the people the movements and the cultural shifts that are defining the continent today. It is a brilliant example of how a pan European conversation can be both smart and fun.
By moving beyond national headlines the show builds a bridge between different European realities. It is essential listening for those who want to understand the complexities of our neighborhood with a touch of wit and a high level of journalistic integrity.
Recommended episodes for this week
Bananas, paltas y cocaína: la ruta del tráfico marítimo desde Sudamérica · El Hilo 🇪🇸 Spanish
Groenland: trois semaines de folie · Le Collimateur 🇫🇷 French
Digital Leben· ORF 🇦🇹 German
Swipe Left on Society: Singledom, Sexless Men, and the New Politics of Loneliness · The David McWilliams Podcast · 🇮🇪 English
Le monde devant soi · Slate 🇫🇷 French
✨ A shared path
We want to thank you for the pertinent reclaim regarding our platform. It reminds us that Choosing Europe is not a destination we have already reached but a process we are navigating together.
We are listening, we are thinking and we are choosing one step at a time.
We have decided that Choosing Europe will be completely free and open to everyone. We want these stories and ideas to reach as many people as possible without any barriers. If you enjoy this newsletter the best way to support it is by sharing it with friends or colleagues who might find it useful.
You can also find us on Mastodon 🐘 or simply reply to this email. We read every message and appreciate your feedback as we build this project together.
Thank you for reading Choosing Europe.